Faculty

Margaret Trost, MD, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Trost is a passionate educator. She has been an instructor for the USC Keck School of Medicine course "Introduction to Clinical Medicine", which involves teaching the art of the physical exam and history taking to junior medical students, since 2011. She supervises senior medical students, residents, and fellows as they care for pediatric inpatients at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Trost completed a year of pediatric infectious disease fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern, where she studied respiratory viruses and their relation to asthma. She has now transitioned her infectious disease skills to a position on the infection control and antimicrobial stewardship commitees at CHLA, and remains dedicated to teaching residents about appropriate antibiotic use. In addition to viral respiratory illness, Dr. Trost's main research focus is improving the experience of hospitalization for children. Specifically, she studies ways to reduce pain and distress in both the children and parents admitted to CHLA. Most recently, she has partnered with USC Viterbi School of Engineering to bring socially assistive robots to CHLA to interact with children during painful procedures. Currently she acts as a research mentor to four medical students through the USC Salerni mentorship program, and heads the Evidence-Based Medicine research interest group within the Division of Hospital Medicine